Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107306 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“Cil plays piano. He stopped for years but started again because of Bunny.”
Yeah, Ollie told me he played. I don’t know why Rory’s sharing this with me. Are we supposed to be bonding now? Becoming friends?
“What about you?” I ask. “What do you like?” Frankly, I don’t care about Cillian—as long as he doesn’t hurt Ollie—but the man before me is an enigma, and I can’t stop myself from wanting to know more about him.
“I’m not musically inclined. I’m good at fighting and fucking, which you saw. I don’t like long walks on the beach. I do enjoy a little stalking, I suppose, following people, shit like that.”
“Yeah, I’ve been on the receiving end of it.”
“And look where we are now! I think that says just as much about you as it does me. You think I’m wild, but you like it.”
I could deny it, but there’s no point. We both know it would be a lie. “Yes,” I reply.
“And you like holding people at gunpoint and stealing from them.”
“You unlocked that new pleasure in me.”
“Oh yeah. I forgot. It’s not as fun without me. None of the others compare.”
I roll my eyes, but he’s right.
“We’ll do something together sometime. Just for fun.”
A smarter man, a better man, would tell him no, but I don’t. Because when Rory joined me in the fight at the bar the other night, I had fun. “Okay.”
He grins, and I do the same.
“What else?” I ask him.
“What else what?”
“Do you like?”
“Food. Oh, and video games and horror movies.”
“I love horror movies.”
His eyes widen with a different kind of excitement than I usually see from him. “No shit?”
“No shit.”
“I think we’ll get along just fine, pet.”
I wait for the nickname to rub me the wrong way, try to be annoyed, but I’m not. I was in the beginning, but maybe that was partly because I thought I should be. This whole situation between us is exactly what I need, something that’s mine in a world where I’ve spent most of my life worrying about others—or one other person, that is. And though this won’t last, though I don’t want it to or trust it to, I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it while I can.
“Wanna watch something before I take you back?” Rory asks.
“Yeah, sure. Let’s do it.”
I have to try hard not to smile, but I don’t let myself think too much about it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rory
“You doing okay?” Tiernan asks me.
I’m sitting on the couch, video-game controller in hand, the bong in front of me. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’ve been scarce while Cil’s been gone.”
At first, I was gone stalking Shai, and then the night he fucked me. I’ve watched him a little since then. It’s fun following him when he doesn’t know it. I’ve even sneaked into his house while he was sleeping, but we haven’t talked face-to-face again.
We are texting, though, small things here and there. I’ll ask how my pet is doing, and he’ll tell me all the things he wants to do to my ass. Honestly, I can’t fucking wait, but as careful as he was with me that night, I’m not sure I’m ready to take him again yet. Soon, though.
Tiernan crosses his arms. He’s wearing slacks and a button-up shirt like always, gaze studying and penetrating in a way only he’s capable of. It’s like he’s always dissecting every interaction with every person he speaks to, filing everything away for later in that vast brain of his. For others, he’ll use it against them. When it comes to us, it’s just his way of making sure we’re all on track and everyone is okay, without actually saying those words.
“You’re staying out of trouble?” he asks.
“Yes. I can handle a week without Cillian.” Maybe I should be annoyed that Tiernan is asking, but I’m not. I am who I am, and there’s no changing that. “Plus, he and Bunny will be back today, so all is good, Daddy T.”
“Fuck off.”
“You like those two words just as much as your boyfriend does.” Dean’s favorites are fuck you or fuck off.
He smiles in that way he does with anything that has to do with Dean, the same way Cillian is with Ollie, but that I’ve never had.
“Okay. As long as you’re good. If you’re not, you can come to me. Or Dean, or Ash.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not messed up about Cil being in love. If it wasn’t Ollie, I’d kill whoever it was, but it is Ollie, so I’m fine.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s not different,” he replies, his words snagging on an unexpected emotion in my chest. Regardless of how I dice it, there’s a kernel of truth in what he’s saying.
I know they all worry about me because, well, because I’m me, but also because of my parents. My father was hard to control, and then he got himself murdered doing dumb shit. Before that, my mom killed herself because she hated this life, yes, but she’d always been depressed. She’d needed help mentally that she never received. So they’re always looking for signs in me.